Seventeen-year-old Melanie Kennicut is beautiful. Her entire life revolves around this beauty because her overly controlling mother has been dragging her to casting calls and auditions since she was four years old. According to Joanne Kennicut, Melanie was born to follow in her footsteps. But Melanie never wanted this life. When a freak car accident leaves her with facial lacerations that will require plastic surgery, she can't help but wonder if this is the answer to her prayers. For the first time in her life, she has a chance to live like a normal teenagerat least for a little whileaway from the photo shoots and movie sets that have dominated her entire existence. But after Melanie allows her best friend to come to the house to see her, Joanne decides to hide her daughter in Montana for the remainder of the summer. There, Melanie won't be seen by anyone they know, and her face will heal in time for the scheduled surgery in late August. Joanne’s plan backfires, however, when Melanie meets Sam, a Native American boy hired by the home's owner to tend to the property. Sam is nothing like the Hollywood boys Melanie knowshe¹s poor, his father's a drunk who possesses a bizarre gift inherited from a Kootenai Shaman, and his only brother disappeared into the mountains after the death of their mother eight years before. What transpires over a mere 36 hours after Sam and Melanie meet changes both of their lives in ways they never thought possible.
USA Best Book Awards: Fiction: Young Adult, Finalist
When I read the synopsis of Beautiful Girl I thought it sounded so, so interesting. I was curious what event transpired that would change both Melanie and Sam's lives, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The novel starts, quite abruptly, with Melanie and a friend out and about in LA, when Melanie leaves (because her friend is a jerk) and ends up in a car wreck which leaves her with facial scars. Surgery is planned for later that summer, but until that happens, Melanie's Momager Mom wants her out of the spotlight, so they head to Montana, which is where Melanie meets Sam and a whole load of stuff goes down that literally blew my mind.
Honestly? I felt the book was rushed. I liked the idea, I liked that Melanie had to get over the fact she wasn't beautiful any more, when beauty was all she knew, and I liked Sam. But the whole insta-love thing was insane. Literally after one conversation, Melanie was high-tailing it out of the rental house to go with him and what followed was just insane. It was too much. TOO MUCH HAPPENED. It wasn't believable enough for me.
You have to read it to believe it, and sadly, I didn't believe it. I didn't understand why Sam and Melanie felt so close, so quick; or what the deal was with Melanie's mom who was a horror and no amount of what transpired changed that opinion for me; she puts Kris Jenner to shame.
This just wasn't the read for me, which was a shame, wanted to love it, but I just didn't.
